The Green Pitch workshop was implemented on 12/08/2025 at the Centro Interpretativo de Educação Ambiental in Verim, bringing together 27 young participants in an outdoor, non-formal learning environment. The activity aimed to raise awareness of key environmental challenges – such as climate change, pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity loss—by combining sport-based activities with experiential and collaborative learning. Through teamwork, movement, and reflection, participants explored how sport can act as a powerful tool for promoting sustainability, social responsibility, and active citizenship.
Objectives:
- To raise awareness among young people about pressing environmental challenges such as climate change, pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.
- To encourage critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving skills by exploring realistic and actionable solutions.
- To promote teamwork and participation through sport-based educational methods.
- To link sport with sustainability values, demonstrating how it can be a powerful tool for social and environmental change.
- To support the goals of the STELLA project by fostering behavioral change in young people through experiential learning.
Desired Outcomes:
This event aimed to ensure that participants would leave with:
- A deeper understanding of environmental problems and their causes.
- Practical ideas on how to reduce their personal environmental footprint.
- Awareness of how sports can be used to promote sustainability.
- Strengthened intercultural communication and teamwork skills.
- Increased motivation to take local action or participate in future sustainability initiatives.
Description and Implementation:
The original activity from the SEE (Sustainability and Environmental Education in Outdoor Sports) project manual was implemented largely as described, with some contextual and logistical adaptations.
Adaptations included:
- Linguistic Support: As participants were international, we provided support in English and Portuguese, and facilitators ensured everyone understood instructions clearly.
- Cultural Contextualization: Environmental issues were connected to both Portuguese and global contexts during the introduction and debrief.
- Physical Adaptation: Some tasks were slightly modified to fit the terrain and space available at the Centro Interpretativo de Educação Ambiental.
- Enhanced Checkpoints: We expanded the station-based outdoor activity to include more practical examples and challenges relevant to youth (e.g., reducing waste at festivals or sporting events).
- Collaborative Reflection: We included a longer debrief session to deepen reflection and allow participants to share perspectives from their countries.
Feedback:
Overall, the reactions were highly positive. Participants especially appreciated the dynamic structure of the session, highlighting the outdoor challenge as a creative and enjoyable way to connect physical activity with learning about sustainability. Many found the role-playing and group discussions to be insightful and engaging, offering new perspectives on their potential to contribute to environmental solutions.
Conclusion and Recommendations:
The workshop successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of integrating sport and non-formal education to address complex environmental issues. Participants showed high levels of engagement, critical thinking, and motivation, with many expressing a stronger sense of responsibility and willingness to take action in their own communities. The intercultural exchange and collaborative problem-solving exceeded expectations and reinforced the value of the STELLA methodology. For the wider STELLA project, this event highlights the importance of balancing physical activity with structured reflection, offering adaptable activities, and providing follow-up resources to extend learning beyond the workshop and support long-term behavioral change.